Related Suppliers

Related Suppliers

Featured Research

Featured Research

Quick Stats

Quick Stats

You are here

Retailers Begin to Roll Out E-Receipts

Customers are becoming more receptive to the paper receipt alternative.

August 8, 2011, 08:00 pm

NATIONAL REPORT -- Since the Internet era reached its zenith, we have heard about a future where paper would become unnecessary. You can perhaps add paper receipts to the list of now paperless items, according to The New York Times.

More and more major retailers, including Whole Foods Market, Nordstrom, Gap Inc., Anthropologie, Patagonia, Sears and Kmart are offering e-mailed receipts or ones that can be uploaded via password-protected websites in place of paper receipts.

Now that paperless receipts are in vogue, customers have to be willing to accept them. According to retailers, customer acceptance continues to increase. "As consumers, we're changing the way we shop," Jennifer Miles, overseer of retail systems at VeriFone, a manufacturer of checkout technology, told The New York Times. "Customers are starting to want electronic receipts."

According the newspaper, customers have warmed up to electronic receipts for several reasons. Among them: e-receipts can make tax preparation easier and paper receipts can easily be lost. Consumers also cite that e-receipts are good for the environment, as millions of trees are cut down each year for paper usage.

The report did note that some consumers have not warmed up to e-receipts, however. "People are very protective of their e-mail inbox," Robert Cohen, vice president of retail at Patagonia, told the newspaper. He added that only one-third of the company's customers choose e-receipts upon checkout.